Business and theatre. Sounds like two parallel worlds. What do they have in common? EFKO believes that one man, Konstantin Stanislavsky, connects Russian business and Russian theatre.

In addition to being a tremendous industrialist and innovator, he revolutionized theatrical art and made a significant contribution to the business and theater industries. His publications "Ethics," "An Actor's Work on Himself," and "My Life in Art" provide the secrets of successful business administration for any manager or entrepreneur. Essentially, the "Stanislavsky system" is a coded communication from former Russian businesspeople to current ones about conducting business "the Russian way."

Moscow hosts the “GITIS Visiting EFKO” project, a series of open lectures at EFKO’s public space on Leningradsky Prospekt. The speakers are teachers, professors, and the rector of GITIS. The project is supported by the GITIS Friends Club. Anyone can participate; advance registration is required.

The cycle spans six months, with one meeting per month, and is organized into thematic sections. “History of the Theatre”, “The Actor in the Russian Theatre”, “The Stage Director in the Russian Theatre”, “Russian Theatre and World Culture” and others.

Sergei Ivanov,
Executive Director of EFKO

Like Russian literature, Russian theater is an integral aspect of Russian culture. Sergei Ivanov, Executive Director of EFKO, explains that Russian theater is not a continuation of world theater but rather a legacy of Russian literature, Orthodoxy, and Russian history. "Russian business, based on its cultural code and historical identity, has the potential to completely transform the concept of creative endeavor, just as Russian theater transformed world theater." Everyone who is interested is welcome to join our lecture series. The first lecture, which will discuss the old theater, is set for October 3.

Rector of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS)
Grigory Zaslavsky

Sergei Ivanov and I both believe that Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a great businessman and a top manager of his era, and that his approach is still the only one recognized in the theater today. So successful, in fact, that even after the Revolution, at the request of the then People's Commissar for Education, Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, he continued to manage the factory for another five years, from 1917 to 1922. Since Stanislavski talks a lot about ethics when discussing theater, this combination leads us to believe that if business was so beneficial to Russian and international theater in the years prior to the Revolution, then perhaps the guidelines he developed could be beneficial to both theater and business. And the emergence of Russian art would not have happened without the ethics that bound together all those big businesspeople and art supporters of the early 20th century.

Anastasia Kudryavtseva,
head of the GITIS Friends Club

“The GITIS Friends Club was started as a special project of the institute, its mission is to promote Russian theater art as a phenomenon, its traditions, principles, and school,” explains Anastasia Kudryavtseva, head of the GITIS Friends Club. EFKO’s lecture hall is both a “territory of big business” and a physical space where discussions might uncover areas of overlap between the business and theatrical sectors, demonstrating that these two seemingly disparate fields have far more in common than first appears".